Stewart, C-NS win fourth straight sectional AA title

Northstars overwhelm West Genesee, 69-33, at Carrier Dome

Cicero-North Syracuse senior Breanna Stewart (30) jumps to block a shot from West Genesee’s Kerri Taylor (14) in last Friday’s Class AA final at the Carrier Dome. The Connecticut-bound Stewart also had 30 points as the Northstars beat the Wildcats 69-31 for its fourth consecutive sectional title.
Photo by Herm Card.

SYRACUSE  True, many honors have flooded toward Breanna Stewart, but she's most pleased about what she and her Cicero-North Syracuse girls basketball teammates have done together.

And that resume now includes four consecutive Section III Class AA championships, the fourth of them attained Friday night as the Northstars breezed past the Wildcats 69-33 in the sectional final at the Carrier Dome.

"Four straight (titles) is pretty good," said Stewart. "It's a great accomplishment."

In barely three quarters of game action, Stewart, the leading scorer in Section III history with 2,218 points, attained 30 points, the Connecticut-bound senior again using her overwhelming array of skills, on the offensive and defensive ends, to snuff out the Wildcats' challenge.

All this followed another wave of positive publicity for Stewart. She was named the 2012 Naishmith Girls Basketball Player of the Year and will be honored at a dinner March 22 in Atlanta. Stewart also made an appearance in the weekly "Faces in the Crowd" feature of this week's issue of Sports Illustrated.

Not to be forgotten, though, was the small detail of going to the Dome and winning the sectional final against a fourth different opponent after topping Fayetteville-Manlius in 2009, Corcoran in 2010 and Utica Proctor in 2011.

West Genesee had not won a sectional title since 1994. And the odds were long here, especially considering that C-NS had throttled them 89-31 in their lone regular-season encounter in January.

It didn't help, either, that Melissa Fumano, WG's star sophomore forward, was out of action, attending the wedding of her brother, planned long before the Wildcats made it to the sectional final.

Fans from Camillus arrived in the Dome donning gold "Duel in the Dome" T-shirts, and were encouraged by an ice-cold from the Northstars, who did not have a point in the first 2:45 before Sarah Bowles hit on a breakaway layup.